Bahá’ís are required by the teachings of their Faith to
refrain from involvement in partisan political activity and civil disorder.
This is true whether such activity is a response to racial oppression, as is
generally the case in South Africa, or to more widespread attempts to keep
people divided and vulnerable such as the persecution of religious belief, the
suppression of women, or the denial of political freedom. The hard-won
experience of Bahá’ís under all these conditions convinces them beyond any
doubt that humanity can learn to live as one family and that all the forces of
contemporary history are rapidly impelling the race in this direction. The
pressure of quality of that response, and its speed, will depend as much on
spiritual and moral conditions as it will on economic and political ones.
(From
a statement on “Apartheid: A Bahá’í View”, prepared by the Office of Public
Information, approved by the Universal House of Justice and forwarded to all
National Spiritual Assemblies on 12 October 1986; ‘Messages from the Universal
House of Justice 1986-2001’)
